


Christmas Traditions

by Norberts_Mom



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-22 15:52:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17062616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Norberts_Mom/pseuds/Norberts_Mom
Summary: Prompt: Peeta tries to teach Katniss about some old Christmas traditions and Katniss tries to reciprocate somehow. Does she try to make some Christmas food? Does she try to organize a family dinner? Does she try to find some mistletoe and accidentally chooses the wrong plant to kiss him under? The choice is yours.





	Christmas Traditions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Melacka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melacka/gifts).



> Merry Christmas, Melacka. I hope you enjoy this little bit of Everlark Christmas. This takes place in Panem after Mockingjay, but before the epilogue. Katniss and Peeta are still growing back together.

After a long day in the woods, I’m looking forward to a nice hot bath and dinner with Peeta. Since he came back, we have been spending almost all of our free time together. During the day he works in his new bakery and I hunt and gather in the woods. It’s our new normal.

When I walk in the door, I hear the tv and roll my eyes. Peeta has been obsessed with watching a new show about some old holiday from before the dark days. The government of New Panem has been trying to push it on all of its citizens to celebrate. 

I hang up my jacket, kick off my boots and drop off my haul in the kitchen. Peeta’s got some stew simmering on the stove that is just what I need to take the chill out of my bones. I poke my head into the living room. Peeta is surrounded by what appear to be cookbooks and he’s taking notes from the show on television. 

Peeta looks up and smiles. “You’re home. How was your day?” he asks. 

“Good, got a couple squirrels, some apples and chestnuts that were surprisingly not already eaten. How about you?”

“My day was good too. More people are moving back to twelve. I might have to hire some help to keep up with the demand at the bakery. Dinner will be ready soon, so don’t take too long getting cleaned up,” he teases. 

I feel my cheeks warm. I can get carried away with a hot shower. After having to boil water just to take a bath all my life, I really appreciate the luxury of hot water coming out of the tap.

After my shower, Peeta and I are at the kitchen table enjoying rabbit stew. I ask him about the notes he was taking earlier.

“Oh, it’s that new, well old holiday, Christmas,” Peeta says between bites of stew. “There’s so much about it that fascinates me. Did you know people used to go out into the woods and cut down a tree to put inside their house?”

“What? That doesn’t sound right. Why would they do that?” I ask. 

“It’s just part of the tradition of Christmas. They would decorate it with ornaments, and lights, and garland,” Peeta explains. “Then on Christmas Eve, they put presents under the tree, and open them on Christmas morning.”

I shake my head. “That just sounds ridiculous, bringing a tree into the house. If everyone went into the woods and cut down a tree, there’d be no trees left.”

“Well, some people had fake trees,” Peeta says with a grimace. 

“Fake trees?”

“Yeah. They made them out of plastic to look just like a real tree so they didn’t have to go cut down a real one every year.” 

“Okay. Why were you taking notes? I thought I saw cookbooks out there.” I motion toward the sitting room with my spoon. 

“Oh, yeah,” Peeta says after his last bite of stew. “Christmas cookies! There are tons of them that were made just at Christmas time. I was thinking of adding a few at the bakery. I’m sure you won’t mind being my taste tester.”

“Not at all,” I say with a smile as I get up from the table and take my bowl to the sink. “I will never turn down free cookies.”

As we’re washing the dishes, I start to list what Peeta has told me about Christmas. “So, a tree inside the house, decorated,” I add before Peeta can remind me, “special cookies, anything else?”

“Tons,” Peeta says. “You could watch the show with me, you know.”

“Such as?” I prompt for him to just tell me.

“Send Christmas cards to each other, hang stockings on the fireplace mantle, decorate with holly and ivy, eat mince pies.” 

His list just makes me wrinkle my nose. “They sound so silly. Well besides the mince pies, which you should make after the cookies by the way.” Peeta laughs at my assessment. “What is the reason behind Christmas anyway? Does your tv show say that?”

“Peeta gets solemn all of a sudden. “It’s a celebration of family,” he says so quietly I barely hear him.

“Family. Peeta, neither of us have a family anymore. Why would you want to celebrate family?” I ask. Even to my own ears I'm starting to sound hysterical. 

“I knew you wouldn’t understand,” Peeta mutters. He clears his throat and says, “I’m going to my studio and read up on some of these recipes. I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

As he walks away, I try to think why he would want to celebrate something neither of us have. I start pacing the floor and eventually I wander into the sitting room to see the television is still playing that stupid show. I sit down and try to make sense of what it’s all about. 

On the screen, there’s a family sitting down to a big turkey dinner. It’s a typical family with a dad, a mom, a couple of kids, and an older man that must be the grandfather. We don’t have any of that any more. Why would Peeta want to celebrate that? 

I put my head in my hands as tears escape my eyes. I feel a soft bump on my side. I look up to find Buttercup rubbing against me. I grab him and hold him tight to my chest. “You’re the only family I have left,” I whisper. Buttercup meows as if in agreement and starts kneading his paws against my stomach.

We were all getting along so well. Why did Peeta have to go and bring up family? He and I, and Haymitch, really, are all we each have left. We should be a family of our own. That thought makes me start. Is that what Peeta was getting at? We are a family, not in the traditional sense, but we are all here for each other. And I had to go and ruin it. I throw my head back against the couch and groan. How can I make it up to him, and show him that I think of him as my family too?

Buttercup decides that he’s had enough of my company and starts to wiggle out of my arms. I let him go and look up at the television. The family on tv are standing around a piano singing. There are words on the screen and I jot them down quickly. I run to the kitchen and make up some hot chocolate while I memorize the lines to the song. I hope this works.

I take a tray with the drinks up to Peeta’s studio and knock on the door. I hear a rustling and then shuffling toward the door. As soon as he opens it, I shove the tray into his hands and start to sing:

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas  
Everywhere you go  
Take a look in the five and ten glistening once again  
With candy canes and silver lanes aglow

Peeta’s smile is all the encouragement I need to keep going. I skip ahead a bit to the part about the trees:

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas  
Everywhere you go  
There's a tree in the Grand Hotel, one in the park as well  
The sturdy kind that doesn't mind the snow

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas  
Soon the bells will start  
And the thing that will make them ring, is the carol that you sing  
Right within your heart

“I’m sorry,” I tell Peeta as soon as I finish, but Peeta’s talking as well. 

“Katniss, that was wonderful,” he says and I start to blush.

I duck my head and whisper, “Thanks.” I’m never comfortable taking a compliment, but Peeta told me he loves my voice, so I just knew singing a Christmas carol would show him that I’m trying. I start again, “Peeta, I’m sorry I snapped before. I understand what you were getting at before. You, and I, and Buttercup, and even Haymitch are family. I would love to start a Christmas tradition with you. If you still want to, that is.”

“Of course, Katniss,” he says as he put the tray of hot chocolate down on the coffee table. He drags me over to the couch. “So, do you want to go into the woods and get a tree tomorrow?” he asks and takes a sip of hot chocolate.

“If that’s what you want,” I tell him, and hide my smile behind my mug. “There’s another tradition that I would like to try, but I need to find something in the woods first.”

“What is it?” 

“Mistletoe.” I wonder if he saw anything about it on that television show.

“Mistletoe, huh. I don’t think I know that one. What do you do with it?”

“You’ll see,” I tell him and smile. 

““Merry Christmas, Katniss,” he says and puts his arm around my shoulder.

“Merry Christmas, Peeta,” I answer with a sigh as I lay my head on his shoulder. I really think he’ll like the new tradition I’m going to introduce him to tomorrow. I know I will.

**Author's Note:**

> It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas is a song written by Meredith Willson for Kobalt Music Publishing, and sung by Johnny Mathis.  
> I hope you enjoyed my little fic. Please let me know what you think.


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